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Gold Page #5
Acosta lets that hang there, like a tease.
WELLS:
Daya Kensana?
ACOSTA:
The word, Daya, actually means
upstream... Kensana means gold.
Wells can’t contain his smile.
WELLS:
Upstream Gold?
ACOSTA:
That’s its name.
WELLS:
You gotta be shittin’ me. If I had
invented it, I wouldn’t have had the
balls to name it that.
Natives pass in a canoe going the other way; wildlife along
the shore; ANGLES from shore, poo rafts next to clothes
washing next to teeth brushing. Wells staring. A snake drops
and swims through the water. Wells coolly lights a cigarette.
RISE UP TO SEE the freighter canoe tiny with a white wake, the
river golden in color, bisecting an endless green canopy.
Wells POVs. Sun and jet lag. The steady buzz of the prop.
Peering from under his hat, water rolling by. His eyes fight
it, then shut. Then Acosta is shaking him awake. River
narrower and darker under overhanging trees.
23.
EXT. KENSANA RIVER LANDING - DAY
The boatman pulls up at a muddy bank. A faint trail goes up
into jungle. Acosta hops ashore and Wells follows.
ACOSTA:
So, listen... the Dayak are warrior
people. Probably best known for
Ngayau... headhunting.
WELLS:
What the f***?
ACOSTA:
They believe all of a man’s power is
centered in his head. So they take the
head. Doesn’t happen much anymore, but
they’re probably around thinking we’re
traders or someone’s mother-in-law.
Suddenly Wells freezes. There are FACES in the leaves,
watching them. Then Wells realizes Acosta has vanished up a
dense trail. Wells nearly runs after him.
Acosta stands. He has attached a heavy coconut to the end of a
bamboo stick. He tests its weight on the ground. THUMP. Then
sets out again. Thump Thump Thump.
WELLS:
Okay, I’ll bite. What is that?
ACOSTA:
It makes the king cobras and pythons
think an elephant is coming.
OMIT:
24.
EXT. JUNGLE STOPPING POINT - DAY
Light filters from high in the canopy. THUMP THUMP THUMP. The
coconut vibrates the earth. Wells follows, drenched in sweat.
WELLS:
Getting a world-class case of crotch
rot back here.
(continues, then)
Jesus... How long..?
He stops.
ACOSTA:
Forty million years. For the geology
to cook. Then we come along and take
it.
WELLS:
I meant -
ACOSTA:
I know what you meant, Wells. But
imagine being asked to give up
something you’ve been hoarding for 40
million years? This jungle will test
you, Wells. Hold you up, weigh you,
and decide your worth within an ounce.
WELLS:
Do you always talk like this? Like a
book on tape.
ACOSTA:
I suppose I do. Do you listen to books
on tape, Wells? Ken Fol-let... Louis
L’Amour... Ed-gar Rice Bur-roughs?
He’s really made a meal of those pulp names.
WELLS:
Where are we going, Acosta?
A no look point back over his shoulder -
ACOSTA:
Up. I want to show you something.
WELLS:
Up? How far up?
24A.
ACOSTA:
Six, seven miles tops. Watch your
step.
Wells looks up. If there’s a way, only Acosta can see it.
25.
EXT. JUNGLE - TOP OF THE RIDGE - AFTERNOON
Acosta emerges from the foliage into a clearing. Wells
struggles up after -
Acosta stands on the edge, staring out like a man who’s come
home. Wells is bent over, sucking air, drowning in sweat...
ACOSTA:
Take a look.
Wells looks out and is instantly spellbound -- it’s JUST LIKE
HIS DREAM. GOLDEN LIGHT sparkles over a pristine valley. The
KENSANA RIVER snaking around, smoke from a small village on
the river far in the distance.
WELLS:
My God, it’s just like my dream.
ACOSTA:
There have been a few folks up here
tapping over the years but they’ve all
focused on the foothills far to the
south, drawn by the basalt overlay.
He points to an area on the opposite side of the valley.
ACOSTA (CONT’D)
What interests me is the other way, on
the east bank, up from the river. That
small depression, like a giant left a
footprint walking away.
Far away we see limestone features we will recognize from the
“Washoe site.” True excitement in Acosta’s voice -
ACOSTA (CONT’D)
Those limestone structures are 300
million years old, the pale color
comes from skeletons of tiny sea
creatures. But the placer gold I’ve
recovered there is much older.
Something happened there, Wells.
Something hot and angry. That’s where
we’ll find the tasty bits.
But Wells is barely listening. He’s transfixed.
WELLS:
My dream... It’s out there...
26.
ACOSTA:
Damn right it is.
Two men together, staring out at their destiny, and WE GO:
A small village on the river. A vendor scoops rice onto flat
leaves, grilling some kind of meat over an open fire. He puts
the two portions up on a flat board.
Wells goes for his wallet. Acosta stops him, producing a small
pouch. He removes a pinch of GOLD DUST, sprinkles it on a
scale on the vendor’s cart.
ACOSTA:
Coin of the realm around here.
(beat)
When you think about it, Gold is
utterly useless. Copper, Iron,
Beryllium, Palladium, Bismuth, these
are metals you can do something with.
But the one that’s good for nothing is
the one that everybody wants. Does
have a quality though. When you hold
it in your hand, it does something to
you.
Weights are adjusted, a little more dust -- no one can take
their eyes off the sparkling gold.
WELLS:
Like get you to spend your whole life
looking for it.
ACOSTA:
...so the lease is currently held by a
Brazilian company.
Acosta sits comfortably, eating. Wells searches his pockets,
finds a couple of mini-bar bottles of scotch, and a packet of
airplane peanuts. Offers one of the bottles to Acosta.
WELLS:
Only chance you got of surviving
what’s in that bowl of microbes.
ACOSTA:
...They’re looking to unload it cheap -
getting buried on some Kazakh venture.
Wells finds some peanuts from the plane. Eats them.
27.
WELLS:
You know, Mikey, I’m starting to love
how you talk. And the first thing I’m
gonna do is move some paper.
ACOSTA:
None of the big guys will touch us.
In Wells we see a touch of the old confidence returning.
WELLS:
You want to raise money from the big
boys, from Harvard endowment or some
pension fund, I am not your guy. But
the little guys, the guys you’ve never
heard of... those are my guys. How
much do we need?
ACOSTA:
Seven, seven-fifty to start.
Ouch... Wells takes a beat to re-focus.
WELLS:
But how much are we gonna need?
ACOSTA:
It’s not just the lease. We must first
procure a permit, which in Indonesia
means lining pockets. There are
capital costs, too. Equipment. You
don’t just do this with a couple
shovels and a pick-axe.
WELLS:
I’ll get the money. Whatever it
takes.
Wells is about to wipe his face with his NAPKIN, but has a
sudden idea. He pulls out a pen and quickly scribbles
something down on it then slides the napkin over to Acosta.
ACOSTA:
What’s this?
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"Gold" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 Sep. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/gold_1054>.
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